Steady Growth

 

I remember, not too long ago, that there were probably only a dozen places in London where you could get a pint of decent craft beer and even then only a sniff of the then hyped up new releases of styles and hops emerging from the USA. I first started to take notice of this emerging scene around 2012 but it had been "brewing" (excuse the pun) for a few years before that. Some would claim that Meantime (in Greenwich) was the first real "craft" brewery in the UK, they started in 1999 but were quite mainstream in their outlook and the styles they made, other contenders would include Brewdog (2006) and Thornbridge (2005) although there's clearly a debate to be had around definitions here. Anyway, regardless of who was first, London was the place most of these beers showed up for the first time and were available to actually buy and try. 

I remember trying my first "Punk IPA" from Brewdog back in 2012 it was a revelation, the hop forward style and aggressive bitterness was new, fresh and intriguing, so much so that I even blogged about it (rare at the time)! Getting hold of these beers however was a different story, it was difficult, I recall taking a trip up to London just to go to the Brewdog bar in Campden about a year or so after it opened and that was the closest place to where I live (40 miles away!) that I knew of at the time where you could try craft beers. Fast forward 10 years and there are five (good) craft breweries within a ten mile radius of my house, I can buy great craft in the supermarket and there are over 300 locations in London alone that sell and/or serve this kind of beer. 

The big question now is "what happens next"? There's no doubt that the early founders of this scene have generally done well, Brewdog is a billion dollar business at this point (lucky I invested early!) and I've even seen beer from my local craft brewery (Siren) based in Berkshire available in places as far afield as California! But, can this growth be sustained? Covid certainly slowed things down somewhat, several newly formed breweries and bars closed and there's been a slight contraction of the industry in the last couple of years. I suspect the impending energy cost crunch will further weed out the "unfit" producers and outlets I fear the craft beer industry is , for the most part, still in its Darwinian phase. On the positive side though, when you look at overall consumption, then this segment of the market has only just scratched the surface and there are still plenty of new outlets opening up every month. The scene is spreading out over the country like the root system of a young tree, there are still places in the UK where you struggle to find craft (like here for example) but hopefully, eventually, it will permeate every nook and cranny of the land and you'll be able to find a decent pint wherever you find yourself.